NSW rejects RNS emergency recommendation

The New South Wales Government has accepted 43 of the 45 recommendations made by a committee looking into Sydney’s Royal North Shore (RNS) Hospital, but says it will not support a recommendation to change the way emergency patients are sorted.

The inquiry was launched after a number of serious issues at the RNS, including the miscarriage of Jana Horska in the hospital’s emergency department toilets after she waited two hours for treatment.

The Upper House committee, chaired by Christian Democrats MP Reverend Fred Nile, handed its report to the Government five days before Christmas.

The report identified problems including an unacceptable tolerance of workplace bullying, a disconnect between management and staff, and a shortage of nurses.

There were also revelations during the inquiry about live cockroaches in operating theatres and beds collapsing during surgery.

Health Minister Reba Meagher says one of the recommendations not supported by the Government involved modifications to the triage system.

“This is not a decision for Government, nor is it a decision for management,” she said.

“The method of triage is one that has been established by the informed decision making of the Australasian College of Emergency Physicians.

“The Government has noted that recommendation and referred it to the Australasian College for their consideration.”

Ms Meagher says there have already been significant improvements at the hospital over the past few months.

“Every week, the performance of Royal North Shore Hospital has been improving and we’re determined to see that change continue,” she said.

“The recommendations that have been brought forward by the Nile inquiry will inform and add to that process.”

But Opposition’s health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner says low morale and understaffing are still major problems at the hospital.

“This hospital needs more nurses, it’s short of beds still, it needs specialist doctors and they’re all tearing their hair out about what they see as flawed redevelopment plans,” she said.

“This is a Minister who is clearly out of her depth.”

A special commission of inquiry was called last month into the NSW health system, after the deputy state coroner found the RNS caused the death of a 16-year-old when it made every conceivable error in its treatment.

The girl, Vanessa Andersson, died at the hospital in 2005, two days after she was admitted for a skull fracture she suffered when she was hit by a golf ball.

The coroner, Carl Milovanovich, found the teenager died of respiratory arrest due to the effect of the medication she was administered. The inquest heard anaesthetist Sanaa Ismial gave Miss Anderson the wrong dose of a painkiller.

Mouse could hold key to cold cure

The first mouse to catch a cold has given British scientists fresh hope that they could finally find a cure for coughs and sneezes, as well as more serious conditions like asthma.

Scientists at Imperial College London created a genetically engineered mouse susceptible to the virus causing most colds, which normally only infects humans and chimpanzees.

The breakthrough means that it should now be easier to test new cold remedies as well as treatments for other respiratory conditions like asthma and bronchitis, potentially speeding up the discovery of cures.

The research, led by Professor Sebastian Johnston, was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

“These mouse models should provide a major boost to research efforts to develop new treatments for the common cold as well as for more potentially fatal illnesses such as acute attacks of asthma and of COPD (constructive obstructive pulmonary disorder, such as chronic bronchitis),” Professor Johnston said.

The discovery was welcomed by Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chief executive of Britain’s Medical Research Council, which funded the study.

He said the research would “open up new paths to finding treatments which have been delayed for many years and provides us with the opportunities for further breakthroughs in the future”.

Rhinoviruses, which cause most colds, were discovered 50 years ago but studying them without being able to experiment on mice has proved difficult.

The Common Cold Unit started work in Britain in 1946 to find a cure for the sniffles through experiments on human volunteers but it was disbanded in 1989 after failing to crack the problem.

ANU, China team up to fight bird flu

Australian National University researchers are joining forces with scientists in China to find treatments for avian influenza.

The new research centre will be based at the John Curtin School for Medical Research at the ANU in Canberra.

The Australian and Chinese governments have each contributed $1.5 million in funding.

Head of scientific programs at the ANU Dr Ed Bertram says Australia’s vulnerability to bird flu makes the program vital.

“The latest outbreak has been in Indonesia with a very high rate of fatality and so if avian flu does mutate for ease of human to human spread it wouldn’t take too much for the virus to get into Australia,” he said.

“So we need to have a number of measures to prevent this and I think this project is just one aspect of trying to identify ways that we can help with fighting bird flu.”

Dr Bertram says he hopes the research will ultimately lead to a vaccine.

“This project really is a new area of investigation, so we’re really trying to look at alternations in the genome of individuals that can enhance resistance to avian flu, which may give us leads to developing specific therapies that we could incorporate into vaccine designed to fight bird flu,” he said.